There are 7,117 languages in the world! And the further surprising fact is that only 23 out of these 7,117 languages are the ones that cover more than half the populace of the globe! I mean, of course, judging by the huge number, not every Language can have an equal share among the entire population, resulting in many languages being forgotten or becoming a challenge for linguistics to crack an extinct language down!
However, be it a dead language or an endangered one, or a very popular one, each of them has roots from the ancient times when the languages were made for the first time, which brings us to another fact that we have some of the oldest languages among us. By old, I mean really old which includes not just a few centuries ago but much more than that. So without wasting time let’s move to know more about the top 5 oldest known languages in the world, they might surprise you!
Tamil
Tamil is one of the oldest languages in the world dating back to more than 5000 years ago! And don’t be surprised if I tell you that the language is still widely spoken and has more than 77 million speakers! It, of course, has evolved a bit but not to an extent where it has entirely changed, in fact, the language is recognized as the official language of the Tamil Nadu state in India and is widely spoken in South Asia. Member of the Dravidian language family, Tamil, is a deeply respected language to date.
Sanskrit
The language lost its common use in 600 B.C itself explains how old it has its origin! Sanskrit is also named as the world’s oldest language! This official language of India is also associated to be the originator of many other languages and it dates back to more than 5000 years ago. It is not a language used for daily conversation unlike Tamil but still has a huge number of people who can read or speak it. It had s roots in the Vedic eras and the Vedas are all written in Sanskrit. This fact itself creates huge respect for the language for not only being the oldest but for also being a language of Gods according to Hinduism.
Egyptian
Since Egypt is one of the oldest civilizations of the world, its language being one of the oldest languages is not that shocking of a fact. The language dates back to more than 5000 years and its first written artifact dates back to 3400 BC! The language has evolved in recent years but still has a stronghold among many people, enough to survive in its ancient form much longer as an ancient language which is spoken fluently by some.
Greek
The language is one of the oldest, has a solid presence as a spoken language with more than 13 million speakers! This recognized official language by the European Union dates back to 1500 BC and is associated with being spoken since the 3rd millennium BC. Member of the Indo-European language family, it is the official language of Greece.
Chinese
The Chinese language has a persistent value in China, so much so that unlike many countries people prefer it much more than the extremely preferred English language. It has around 1.24 billion speakers! And its first script dates back to 1250 BC making it a language as old as 3000 years or more. A different form of the Chinese language is spoken by people however the old Chinese that is the origin is a much older language, one of the oldest languages of the world.
Humans sure have been much smarter than they get the credit for, no matter the language being dead or alive, the fact itself of the language being made in such ancient times is no less of a deal to value the intelligence of ancient people! Let us know if any of these are your native language because you are one of the speakers of some of the oldest languages in the world!
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